I had MASTITIS...

So, I started my first week back at work (teaching high school French and Spanish), and I was getting excited that I was about to finish the full week because, in my eyes, it was a big accomplishment to go back to work full-time after a very short maternity leave and still keeping up with school work, babies and the chores (laundry, vacuuming, dishes, etc.) at home, at least for this first week... until, on Thursday morning, I felt a large lump in my left breast.  It made me very nervous, because I thought immediately that it was cancer.

This past week while I was at school and when my mom-in-law, Nancy, graciously took care of Baby Max at home while I went back to work, I had been breast-pumping at school two-three times a day.  So, Thursday morning, after I used the breast pump at school in the morning and felt my left boob again, there was still this hard, uncomfortable lump that I could distinctly feel apart from the rest of my "depleted breast tissue" after having just used the electric breast pump during my morning free period, so I decided to call my doctor.  The nurse called me back while I was teaching a class and told me to come in immediately that afternoon.

I went to the doctor Thursday afternoon of this first week back at work (because I have some wonderful colleagues who were willing to cover my afternoon classes), and she told me that I had the condition of MASTITIS.

According to babycentre.co.uk, this is the definition:

"Mastitis is an inflammation in your breast tissues.  The inflammation may quickly become an infection, which means that bacteria grow in the inflamed tissues.  You may also feel a lump, called a blocked duct, though tit isn't caused by an actual blockage.  It's the build-up of milk in your breast that causes the tissue to become inflamed... Mastitis is most often caused when milk builds p in your brea because it's being made faster than it's being removed (milk stasis)."

My doctor said that this mastitis was "normal" with women who breast-fed their babies.  I am breast-feeding Max exclusively, so I know that I am breast-feeding him much more than my daughter, Reagan, because she needed formula supplement from the very beginning.  I was not able to give her the energy that she needed with my experience in breast-feeding her as my first baby.  

This mastitis condition scared me at first, but does not surprise me now that I saw the doctor, because it's really difficult for me to use my electric breast pump every 1-2 hours while teaching at school in between my free periods, as that is how often I had been breast-feeding Max for the past five weeks of my maternity leave at home.  I know that now I need to be more careful and make sure that I'm taking care of myself and Max as I continue at work to use the breast pump so this lump does not appear again.  

My doctor prescribed to me the DICLOXACILLIN antibiotic pills for my mastitis.  My OBGYN doctor is so smart, and I am impressed with her after every appointment when I see her, because she describes to me these long names of prescriptions after I come to her with a random issue.  She is the best!  

After taking one of these DICLOXACILLIN antibiotic pills once every 6 hours since Thursday afternoon, the bump from my left breast has already disappeared after 24 hours.  My doctor said that if I didn't feel 100% better by Monday (when I return to my doctor for my 6-week postpartum check-up appointment on Mon. April 11th), that she would need to perform an ultrasound to check for cancer tissue.  

But, fortunately, the bump has significantly disappeared, and I've made a point to breast-feed on the weekend or use the electric breast pump at least every 2 hours during school hours, so I stay healthy.  Thankfully, I have some great colleagues who are willing to fill in for part of a class so that I can do this until school gets out at the end of May.